PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE COURSES

I figured we’ d get some flooding and we’ d take the rakes out of the bunkers and that would be about it. We certainly didn’ t know that what happened in a 36-hour period would knock us out for seven months. That was a real eye-opener.”

— Michael Abraham

or some, it was wind. For others, it was rain— lots of it.

For everyone affected, Sept. 27, 2024— the day Hurricane Helene tore through western North Carolina and swept into southwest Virginia— will never be forgotten.

Jeff Little, manager and PGA Professional at Holston Hills Golf Course in Marion— located 30 miles north of the Tennessee state line— could barely believe his eyes when he watched the Holston River rise about 10 feet out of its banks and swallow his back nine holes.

But it wasn’ t just the floodwaters that left his mouth agape. He watched debris enter the course and slam into the bridge crossing its 10th hole— large items, such as washers, driers, Jet Skis and motor homes smashing into each other and clogging up in the raging water at the golf course bridge.

“ When we could get out there to work, we had to use heavy equipment to remove all of that debris,” says Little, who grew up in the area and has been playing the course since 1969.“ We just cleaned it out, stacked it up and hauled it off.”

Holston Hills shut down its back nine holes from the day of the storm until the first of November. According to Little, the course slowly began to recover after a massive cleanup effort and the installation of $ 15,000 worth of boulders along the nearby

riverbanks— though financial support from the Smyth County Community Foundation in Marion has helped accelerate the recovery process. All in all, he expects the total damage to cost at least $ 100,000.

“ This was an absolute shock, and in my lifetime, I’ ve never seen anything like this,” he says.“ Small clubs have small crews, and we have a golf course to take care of. Yes, we’ re open and operating, but there’ s still some cleaning up to do.”

The Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech wasn’ t as fortunate. As of late March, the Blacksburg course had 16 holes open for play, with the heavily damaged 14th and 15th holes still closed.

The adjacent New River crested at 31 feet, and the day after the storm hit, Michael Abraham, the course’ s general manager and director of golf, saw 16 of 18 holes completely covered by water. Only the first two holes avoided being submerged in the flood.

“ I figured we’ d get some flooding and we’ d take the rakes out of the bunkers and that would be about it,” says Abraham.“ We certainly didn’ t know that what happened in a 36-hour period would knock us out for seven months. That was a real eye-opener.”

He watched his 17th hole“ turn into an island green, like Sawgrass” when the river gushed through the course. Then he saw a variety of floating debris, such as trash cans, loose kayaks and the shrubs, trees and vegetation that were ripped out of the riverbank and deposited into the swirling flood.

“ Hole No. 15 was hit the worst and we probably had about 400 dead fish in the fairway, along with rocks and pebbles and crawdads all over the place,” he recounts.

Needless to say, the Hokie men’ s and women’ s golf teams were forced to play away tournaments. When they could practice on their home course, they would play the available 10 holes once or twice.